Tick – Tick – Tick: The Economy Bomb Part Two

by John Gaver

Again, let’s do the math.

As shown above, government data indicates that over 300,000 mostly wealthy Americans would choose expatriation each year, from 2000 to 2005 and increase, beyond that time. In fact, that rate has been increasing at a rate significantly higher than the growth of wealth in this nation, for many years.

Even so, for our calculations, we will only assume that the number of wealthy Americans who are leaving remains stable, at 300,000, which further assumes that Obama and Congress hold back any more legislation that the wealthy see as detrimental to themselves, their business or their rights.

However, now that the Bush and Obama bailouts have pushed the deficit to obscene levels and Obama’s socialized healthcare threatens to destroy what little is left of the US economy, that’s a very rosy assumption. OK. it’s a preposterous assumption. But this is, after all, meant to present a “best case” scenario – for demonstration purposes, only.

Based upon recent history, currently proposed legislation and other disincentives, it would probably be reasonable to assume a 10-20 percent growth in expatriation every year. But, my purpose in this calculation, is to be as conservative in my projections as possible. So let’s just stick with the fairy tale, stable rate assumption. Then, after you see how bad the best case scenario is, we invite you to recalculate, using your own assumptions, to get an idea of just how serious a problem we are really facing.

For now, sticking with the conservative numbers, multiply it out and you will find that if that 300,000 rate holds steady through 2012, the number of wealthy Americans that may have left the United States in that time (including 2007 – the last reported tax year) could easily reach over 1.8 million or well over the 1.4 million taxpayers that make up the top 1% of taxpayers.

That’s 1.8 million US expats from 2007 to 2012 and that’s using an extremely conservative, stable rate assumption.

Granted that not all of those expatriates are going to be wealthy. But, ask yourself, how many of those expatriates you really think will be poor or even middle class. Use your own estimates, based on common sense. Just keep in mind that the poor don’t leave unless they have to. They can’t afford it.

You can see that what appears to be a minor problem today, could turn out to be a catastrophe for the US economy tomorrow. Remember that in 2007, the top-earning 1% amounted to just barely over 1.4 million taxpayers. Depending on how many of those expatriates are wealthy, it’s quite possible that a significant portion of our most substantial taxpayers could be gone by the time we have a chance to vote Obama and his congressional enablers out of office. How much longer can this continue?

In fact, since this wealth flight has been going on for some time and it’s so difficult to estimate emigration levels, it’s anyone’s guess just how many wealthy taxpayers have already been forced to leave. So, ask yourself just how much of our current deficit can be attributed to the loss of tax revenue from the many wealthy Americans, who have already been forced to leave.

Think about it…

But consider this. Let’s just assume that things are not as bad as the picture I have painted. Suppose that the Census numbers are off by a whopping 50% and that the expatriation rate is only half as high as the US Census numbers indicate and not increasing, we still have a serious problem.

Do the math.

Then consider that in reality, due to Bush’s anti-privacy Patriot Act and Obama’s socialized healthcare that he intends to pay for on the backs of the wealthy, not to mention a dozen or more other pieces of wealth-punitive legislation that have been enacted since the 2000 Census (with the support of both parties, I might add), those 2000 Census numbers are much more likely to be off in the other direction. If that’s the case, then expatriation is increasing at an even higher rate than the Census Bureau predicted back in 2000. It might be much worse…

Actions speak louder than words.

Of course, the real evidence of the massive scale of native wealth flight is not in any statistics, but rather in the almost panic reaction of our government. Oh, our congresscritters and officials of the Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies deny that expatriation of the wealthy is more than a minor problem. After all, if native capital flight were perceived to be a serious problem, folks would start asking why it’s so serious, which would lead right back to legislation and regulations, for which they were responsible. They can’t afford that. But, the government’s own actions belie their words. Consider this.

If native capital flight is not a very serious problem, why did both Republicans and Democrats in Congress suddenly find it necessary to add an amendment to the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) (26 USC 877(a)(1)), that claims the right to tax expatriate Americans for 10 years after they renounce their US citizenship and are taxpaying citizens of another country, if the US government thinks that one of their reasons for expatriation was to “legally” avoid U.S. taxes? Actions speak louder than words.

Why did our lawmakers find it necessary to include in that ominous HIPAA legislation, yet another provision (26 USC 6039G(e)(3)) aimed at slowing expatriation by requiring that the names of all who have expatriated during the previous quarter, be published in the Federal Register, as an attempt at intimidating those who might be considering expatriation? (It’s in there, too. Click on the link and read it for yourself. Also see “US Taxpatriates” at http://www.ActionAmerica.org/taxecon/taxpats.html, for links to those quarterly lists.) Actions speak louder than words.

Why then, did they follow-up that abominable law with the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA), which modified the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 USC 1182(a)(10)(E)) to allow the government to permanently deny “wealthy” expatriates entry into the United States, if the US government thinks that one of their reasons for expatriation was to “legally” avoid US taxes? In other words, our government now considers the wealthy to be on a par with smugglers, prostitutes, drug dealers and child abusers, who are also denied entry to the USA. Actions speak louder than words.

And, what does the government use, in both of those laws, to determine if tax avoidance was among the reasons for a taxpayer’s expatriation? Income and/or net worth. If an expatriate had a net worth of $500,000 at the time of expatriation or earned more than $100,000 per year for the five years immediately preceding expatriation, then he is “assumed”, by the US government, to have expatriated to (legally) avoid US taxes. Actions speak louder than words.

To be fair, it should be noted that in 2004, the American Jobs Creation Act raised the numbers for determining if the individual expatriated to (legally) avoid taxes. Under that bill, if the individual had a net worth of $2,000,000 at the time of expatriation (up from $500,000) or had earned at least $124,000 in each of the five years immediately preceding expatriation (up from $100,000), then he was considered to have expatriated to (legally) avoid US taxes. Those two numbers were also then, indexed to inflation.

That same 2004 bill had another interesting provision in it. You see, it seems that out of the more than 300,000 estimated expatriations a year, less than 500 Americans had formally renounced their citizenship each year, through 2003, so the lists of expatriates that were created in the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act were embarrasingly short. Therefore, the reaction of our ever so astute Congress was to add a provision to that bill requiring US expats to formally renounce their citizenship. That year, 631 formal expatriations were recorded. The next three years formal expatriations numbered 762, 279 & 470. Of course, the only people who were surprised at this outcome were our sagacious Congressmen, who just couldn’t imagine why the vast majority of expats were still not signing up for their cute little list.

They obviously don’t care if poor people expatriate. But, these actions prove that they are beginning to panic about the number of wealthy individuals who are leaving and taking their money with them. Actions speak louder than words.

The point is that these laws are clearly aimed at punishing anyone who has the audacity to be rich and leave with their wealth, intact. If the IRS and lawmakers are not very seriously concerned about the number of wealthy taxpayers who are leaving IRS jurisdiction, then what reason would they have to pass such autocratic laws? Think about it… Actions speak louder than words.

Why, if Congress didn’t already know that hundreds of thousands of the wealthiest Americans are now structuring their holdings in preparations for leaving the USA, why did the Senate even considering a bill like the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 1999 (S. 1701) that demanded that not only foreign nationals, but US citizens alike, disclose any and all financial information about foreign holdings that the government seeks or lose all future legal right to challenge any property forfeiture in any US court? Fortunately, that one was narrowly defeated. But you must wonder why they even considered such an autocratic bill. (Don’t take my word for it. Click on the link and read it for yourself.) Actions speak louder than words.
Could an Exit Tax be next on the horizon?

A true exit tax is considered to be one of the most ominous signs of a desperate government. The 10-year expatriation tax, passed in 1996, was bad enough. But, a pure exit tax would be far worse. But if you are waiting for that to happen, before you believe that we are in a world of trouble, then you can stop waiting. In fact, if you were waiting, then like so many other Americans, you missed it. In 2008, Congress passed and George W. Bush signed into law, the first ever US Exit Tax, as a part of the Heroes Earnings Assistance & Relief Tax Act (Public Law 110-245). (Don’t take my word for it. Click on the link and read it for yourself.) Actions speak louder than words.

So, I ask you, if our elected officials were not painfully aware that they themselves, have created a ticking economic time bomb that is now on the verge of detonating and destroying our whole economy, why would our lawmakers create such an abomination? This exit tax eliminates the 10-year expatriation tax and replaces it with a requirement that expats pay tax on the “unrealized” (unearned) capital gains of their worldwide estate, at the time of their renunciation. This could force the sale of long held retirement property, just to pay the exit tax (but only if the expat is stupid enough to formally renounce).

But, the point of all these laws and many others not mentioned here, due to space consideration, is that they are clearly aimed at discouraging wealthy Americans from moving their wealth out of the jurisdiction of the IRS and then moving offshore themselves. The words of the federal government on this issue are belied by their extremely desperate actions. Actions really do speak louder than words.

In fact, if native capital flight was not a very real and serious threat to our tax revenue, there would be not a single reason to even propose, let alone pass, such draconian laws, as those mentioned above.

Many have already gone.

A July 1999 report titled, “Private American Citizens Residing Abroad”, compiled by the US Bureau of Consular Affairs, contradicts the claims of the IRS and others who insist that expatriation is not a serious problem. It shows that an enormous number of American citizens already reside offshore. The following numbers represent only a very small portion of that report (only 10 cities) and only US citizens who have NOT yet renounced their citizenship and further, only those that the Bureau knows about.

Just the American expatriates in those 10 cities alone, numbers almost two million and that’s only the ones who have notified US authorities of their whereabouts, at that. In fact, there is very good reason to believe that less than one expatriate in 10 ever formally renounces or notifies US authorities of his whereabouts after leaving.

Then consider that we have not even begun to touch the outlying areas in those countries or the hundreds of small island nations and emerging countries, favored by expatriates, like Belize, Bermuda, Caymans, Grenada, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago, that have thousands of US expatriates, each.

As you read the above numbers, you might be tempted to think that many of these people are just working offshore and intend to some day return. Not so. According to Wall Street Journal staff reporter, Barry Newman, writing in a December 28, 1998 article titled, “Renouncing U.S. Citizenship Becomes Harder Than Ever”, even among the millions of expatriates that the IRS knows about, in 1994, they received just 257,000 returns claiming any special tax breaks for citizens overseas.

As someone who lived in London for an extended period, I can assure you that the first thing that you learn when you move offshore, is that there is a huge tax break for living offshore. Therefore, if you live offshore and file your tax return, you will certainly take that exemption. However, since only 257,000 returns claimed any such exemption and the government knows of millions of US expats, that can only mean that millions of US expats didn’t file at all. There is only one reason why millions of US expatriates would risk the ire of the IRS, by not filing. They know that they will never face that ire, because they don’t plan on returning!

In fact, during my time in London, I met more than a few US expats (almost all in the upper-income groups), who expressed to me that they have no intention of ever returning to the USA.

Since I lived in a modern building, targeted at US expats, with money to burn (more than $1600 per sq. ft.), I naturally met a lot of expats in the lobby, as I came and went. I also met a lot of expats around town, who would hear my Texas drawl and approach me. They would tell me that they were from the USA and that it was nice to hear an American accent.

When I asked, most of the expats that I met would tell me that they had been gone for years and had no intention of returning. One gentleman told me that even in the unlikely event that he should ever want to return, he would have to pay over a million dollars in back taxes, that the IRS would claim that he incurred since he left, if they even knew about him. It turns out that he was one of those millions who just left and, as he put it, “never told the jailer where he was going.”

Though I already knew the answer, I would usually ask about why they would want to live in the UK, with that country’s exceedingly high taxes. I would ask, as though I was interested in doing the same. When I asked that way, I found that most expats would open up and tell me all about ways to structure my finances, so that my income would be based in low tax jurisdictions, meaning that I would be legally responsible for UK taxes, only on that portion of my income that I brought back into the UK.

The question that you must now be asking is, did I ever consider not returning? The answer is no. We also maintained a home in Texas and would not have incurred that additional expense, if we thought that there was even a remote chance that we would not return.

(The above not withstanding, we have considered expatriation, as a last resort and with Obama pushing socialized medicine on us and running the USA into more debt than can ever be repaid, that last resort may come to pass sooner than we might have expected.)

The point is that if I could so easily meet so many of these permanent expats, there must be a lot more of them out there.

How many more expatriates are out there who have not renounced and simply dropped off of the government’s radar? It cannot be denied. Many of the wealthy are already gone and many more are leaving every day.

4 Responses to Tick – Tick – Tick: The Economy Bomb Part Two

The natural inclination to a demand for taxes ten years after one renounced US citizenship would be something genteel, such as “In a pig’s ear, buddy,” but the problem is clearly getting the assets out ahead of time, and that has been getting a lot harder for a long time. One of my suppositions is that somewhere there is a little paragraph on the books or upcoming that says that former citizens cannot collect pensions, including Social Security–primarily in case the middle classes consider squirming out of the trap.

I am shocked, though, how easily I stopped being “rich” in the eyes of my overlords. Gee, I was fine in 2004! But think of how hard I’d have to work to keep enough to get up to $125, because I can’t see any reason to have to bring in another $3 a month just to meet such a silly standard.

If we think we have trouble converting property in the current hard times, wait until next year when the housing/land market is even worse, taxes go up, the 3.9% Obamacare tax is added, and Cap Gains increases by 50% (i.e., from 10% to 15%.) I did the math on my small ranch and concluded that between having to cut my offering price to half current value to sell it at all and all those taxes and expenses, I would recognize right at 41.40% on the land alone, never mind the improvements. That might buy a nice little place in Belize and cover moving expenses, but it certainly wouldn’t get me an estancia in Argentina or a similar spread farther from “civilization” here in Texas. In short, I am tied to the land as effectively as any serf in the Middle Ages.

The current tax code leads to bizarre behavior. I have not been claiming expenses (roughly the size of the budget of a successful Balkan country) because the reduction in taxes would not be worth having to attempt, in a decade or so, to persuade the IRS to view the ranch as a “business” and not as a “hobby.” At even current costs and restrictions the chances that I will ever make an actual “profit” are nonexistent. Regulations are somewhere between idiotic and insane. For example, I am allowed to sell 30 dozen magnificent free range eggs a week so long as they are refrigerated during transportation and the sale period AND put in new cartons (.25 each), with custom labels. I cannot sell any more without an extremely costly license and meeting a lot of other requirements. I waste–feed to hogs, dogs, goats, and chickens–a hundred gallons of pure, wholesome, delicious whole milk a month because it would cost me on the order of $150,000 to get a dairy license, including putting up three concrete block buildings with filtered air inlets. Mind, at present I AM allowed to sell the milk IF I dye it blue and mark it “for pet use only,” AND put it in a brand new container! With a Bar T-S label. Which will cost me at least a dollar and purchasing a machine to install a “tamper proof” cap. This is ludicrous. I don’t want to have that many cows and goats. I am absolutely no threat to Farma, but better to take no chances, hmmm? My customers might realize that I could sell for $10 what the grocer sells for $14/gallon, and their kids would like blue goats’ milk on their Cap’n Crunch, despite the warning that the product was not approved by the FDA for human use. (Remember, half of what I got would go on the containers, and you will be much happier if I do not regale you with the cost of Alfalfa, the prince of hays, and goat feed.) Add to that the value of a hand’s time to go to the farmer’s market, and we’re back to a basic question: “If we aren’t doing this for fun, why are we doing it?”

I can make the milk into cheese (with very expensive cultures) so long as it is aged at least 90 days… and I have a “commercial” kitchen. All stainless steel, tile floor with drain, 100 feet from any other building, filtered air…to make about 100 pounds of cheese a month?

If the iniquitous Food “Safety” Act is rammed through Congress OR the Legislature in Austin it will become a criminal act to give my milk away or transport it in a private vehicle, as well as to slaughter an animal on the premises for our own use. Don’t you go tryin’ tuh field dress that deer next year, now, John, or the BATF will be after you.

If I cannot sell, give away, or eat what we produce, and the only customers will be others dumb enough to want to run cattle and buyers for the big meat packing plants who will bid .99 for my $4/pound “pastured beef,” what is the point of what I do? The IRS would be right: it is a very enjoyable hobby.

This is pertinent partially because I don’t want to expatriate unless I can take my cattle, goats, horses, and guns, and it is a long way to Nicaragua or Uruguay. I like to speculate on the look on Thomas Jefferson’s face had anyone ever told him it was a criminal offense for his cook to go wring the necks of a couple of chickens, pull their feathers and innards out, and fry them up for his dinner. I don’t think he and Geo. Wash. would take to being told that the government had the right to dictate what seeds they used for the benefit of the husband of Rep. Rosa DeLauro.

When we didn’t get out before the new Iron Curtain clanged down–just like the communist side of Germany, OUR country won’t let us go even to Mexico or Canada, when they were perfectly happy with a driver’s license or birth certificate–and we can no longer contemplate moving to anything other than a foreign ghetto, what do we do? (I don’t care if it is a spacious villa with an indoor staff of six, if I can’t have my livestock and projects, to ME it would be a ghetto.) We work towards secession of at least one, preferably three, areas of the USA as an unmistakable message to the Statists that we aren’t going to stop until we have our freedoms back or they toss at least several million of us in concentration camps. The part that bothers me is…I think a lot of those in government would be pleased to oblige.

The last stat I saw on tax revenues was at least a couple of month ago, and they were down 20% nationwide. It is no wonder the government wants to corral the fingerlings now that the big fish have slipped away quietly. Here’s hoping that the third part of your article has some good suggestions for those of us who would like to drop out but can’t write nine- or ten-figure checks.

The best solution I have is to go limp on them. Buy almost nothing that we cannot eat or protective ourselves with, and choose Craig’s List or barter over commercial sources wherever possible. Don’t feed the tax beast and change fiat currency into items of intrinsic value wherever possible. I’m going to sit here being a sweet little old widow on Social Security, myself. Oh, my, did I just invent another tax? Can they tax me for not working?!

[…] Tick: The Economy Bomb Part Two Posted on September 7, 2010 by Bill Miller This article by John Gaver on DumpDC.com. … government data indicates that over 300,000 mostly wealthy Americans would choose […]

Excellent and informative, I personally know several people living as you describe but was unaware of the numbers involved. Rather startling but it should really come as no suprise. The harder the greedy government tries to confiscate peoples assets the further they bury and protect them instead of using them to everyones benefit.

It’s really not rocket science, however wannabe rulers never get it thru their heads.